A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 01 eBook

[20] This curious account of the origin of ambergris,
was revived again
about twenty-five years ago,
and published in the Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal
Society of London, as a new discovery. The
only difference in the modern
account of the matter is, that the
ambergris originates within
the alimentary canal of the whale, in
consequence, probably, of
some disease; and that the lumps which are
found afloat, or cast on shore,
had been extruded by these
animals.—­E.

[21] Bahrein is an island in the Persian gulf, on
the Arabian shore, still
celebrated for its pearl fishery.—­E.

CHAP. V.

Travels of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, through Europe,
Asia, and Africa, from Spain to China, between A.D.
1160 and 1173[1].

This Spanish Jew was the son of Rabbi Jonas, of Tudela,
a small town in Navarre. According to the testimony
of Rabbi Abraham Zuka, a celebrated professor of astronomy
at Salamanca, it is supposed that Rabbi Benjamin travelled
from 1160 to 1173. Young Barratier, a prodigy
of early literary genius, asserts that Benjamin never
made the journey at all, but patched up the whole
work from contemporary writers. There is no doubt
that his work is full of incredible tales, yet many
of the anomalies it contains, may have proceeded from
mistakes of copyists; exaggeration was the taste of
the times, and other travellers who are believed actually
to have travelled, are not behind him in the marvellous.
These often relate the miracles of pretended Christian
saints, while he details the wonders performed by
Jewish Rabbis. He contains however, many curious
pieces of information, not to be found anywhere else,
and it seems necessary and proper to give a full abstract
of his travels in this place.

Travelling by land to Marseilles, Benjamin embarked
for Genoa, and proceeded to Rome, from whence he went
through the kingdom of Naples to Otranto, where he
crossed over to Corfu and Butrinto, and journeyed by
land through Greece to Constantinople, having previously
visited the country of Wallachia. All this takes
up the four first chapters, which are omitted in Harris.
In the fifth, he gives an account of the city and Court
of Constantinople, as follows: Constantinople
is an exceedingly great city, the capital of the Javanites[2],
or the nation called Greeks, and the principal seat
of the emperor Emanuel[3], whose commands are obeyed
by twelve kings, for every one of whom there are several
palaces in Constantinople, and they have fortresses
and governments in other places of the empire, and
to them the whole land is subject. The principal
of these is the Apripus, Praepositus, or prime
minister; the second, Mega Dumastukitz, [Greek:
Mezas Domestichos], or great chamberlain; the third
Dominot, Dominos, or lord: but his peculiar
office or department does not appear; the fourth Mackducus,